10 Sep 2005

Google is coming to Israel.

Not in the virtual sense, but rather with offices, carpeting, windows (not Microsoft but physical ones), desks, secretaries, telephones (fixed land lines, not VoIP), a kitchen, conference room, toilets, marketing staff and coffee.

Google is the world's most popular Internet search engine, having replaced Yahoo, Lycos, Alta Vista and several others search engines through aggressive, creative development and marketing.

Google, which has been active in Israel since 2002, is planning to open their Tel Aviv office as part of its global physical expansion program. Google Israel plans to focus on its improving directed advertisements in its search engine, and on selling services to the Israel advertising market. Google Israel intends to hire people with connections to Israeli advertisers. Only a handful of people in Israel and SEO professionals will be hired at this stage.

"This important addition to Google's growing number of offices will further enable us to provide our search experience and advertising services to users, advertisers and partners in Israel," the company said. Google said that it has appointed Meir Brand as country manager and its first employee of Google Israel, and that it is looking to hire others for its local strategic sales activities.

Who is Google? Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed a new approach to online search that took root in a Stanford University dorm room and quickly spread to information seekers around the globe. Google is now widely recognized as the world's largest search engine - an easy-to-use free service that usually returns relevant results in a fraction of a second.

When you visit www.google.com or one of the dozens of other Google domains, you'll be able to find information in many different languages; check stock quotes, maps, and news headlines; lookup phonebook listings for every city in the United States; search more than two billion images and peruse the world's largest archive of Usenet messages -- more than 1 billion posts dating back to 1981.

Google is a public and profitable company focused on search services. Named for the mathematical term "googol", Google operates web sites at many international domains, with the most trafficked being www.google.com. Google is widely recognized as the "World's Best Search Engine" and is fast, accurate and easy to use. The company also serves corporate clients, including global and Israel SEO advertisers, content publishers and site managers with cost-effective advertising and a wide range of revenue generating search services. Google's breakthrough technology and continued innovation serve the company's mission of "organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful."

Google also provides ways to access all this information without making a special trip to the Google homepage. The Google Toolbar enables you to conduct a Google search from anywhere on the web, while the Google Deskbar (beta) puts a Google search box in the Windows taskbar so you can search from any application you're using, without opening a browser. And for those times when you're away from your PC altogether, Google can be used from a number of wireless platforms including WAP and i-mode phones.

As Google enters the Israel market beyond it's basic service in Hebrew, SEO or Internet search engine optimization has gone into overdrive. The leading SEO in Israel, Leyden Communications Israel, which has been creating and optimizing Web sites in Israel for 10 years is now focusing on the PR market.

This new and highly potent public relations, public affairs Internet marketing news service for commercial, non-profit and governmental organizations in Israel was launched several months ago.

Israel Internet marketing and SEO - search engine optimization - is now in greater demand in Israel as Israelis try to find themselves on the search engines. Joel Leyden, president of Leyden Communications Israel and the publisher of the Israel News Agency announced the new PR SEO news Internet placement service.

"Ten years after having created the first Internet news source out of Israel in 1995 - the Israel News Agency - I have decided to integrate my 25 years of editorial, public relations and Internet programming skills for the SEO placement of Israel news on the Internet," said Leyden. "I was one of the founders of the Internet in Israel, having created hundreds of Web sites, including the Israel Defense Forces, the first site for an Israel Prime Minister and the first commercial Website named NetKing. Now it's time for Internet journalism and public relations to integrate and reach a higher level."

For decades the international public relations agencies in New York, Chicago, Los Angles, London, Paris and Tokyo have relied upon one or two specialized business news placements services to secure headlines for their clients in industry, government, non-profit, IR, entertainment and hi-tech. These news placement services faxed news releases to thousands of newspapers, trade magazines, TV and radio stations for decades. But where they failed their business and government clients today in the US, Europe and Asia is by not having adapted to the Internet. By having ignored SEO.

"You can't write the same business public relations news release for a print paper as you would for the Internet," says Leyden. "They are totally different mediums. Israel Internet marketing has changed the way we work. The Internet is based on news searches that one makes using Google or Yahoo. When performing searches either on Google Web or Google News one must write as both an knowledgeable SEO editor who also has the skills of an Internet marketing professional. Very few news business editors have the experience of Internet marketing and almost no Internet marketing professionals have any kind of background and experience in print or broadcast journalism."

SEO is short for search engine optimization, the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user. It is common practice for Internet users to not click through pages and pages of search results, so where a site ranks in a search is essential for directing more traffic toward the site. SEO helps to ensure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be found by the search engine.

As Israel Internet SEO pioneers, Leyden was responsible for co-creating Israel's first commercial Web site in 1995 - NetKing - ( featured on CNN, AP and Reuters) and producing dozens of other historic and award-winning Internet Web sites for commercial, governmental and non-profit organizations. Among our many Internet SEO clients are the Israel Defense Forces where Leyden assisted in creating the IDF's first Web site and provided the IDF with global Internet SEO marketing and web promotion solutions. Leyden also created the first Website for an Israel Prime Minister.

Brand previously held executive positions at AOL Time Warner, Microsoft, Booz Allen, Excite@Home and Hamilton. Google did not say when the Israel office would officially open. Google recently hired 17 securities firms to help underwriters Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston sell $4.2 billion of the company's stock. Morgan Stanley, CSFB and Allen & Co. were appointed last month to run Google's stock sale. In Thursday's SEC filing, the company said it will sell more than 14.1 million shares, which would raise $4.14b. at Google's current share price.

Google has been on the leading edge of Internet technology for many years. A recent service that Google has launched is Google Talk, a downloadable Windows application from Google that enables Gmail users to quickly and easily talk or IM with their friends for free. Google is focused on developing innovative technologies that enhance people's lives, and Google Talk encourages and simplifies instant communication across the web. "At Google, we're continually investing in areas where we can make technological change, and we recognize the importance of efficient instant communications and information exchange," said Georges Harik, director, Product Management, Google Inc. "Google Talk further enriches our users' communications experience, whether they choose to communicate via email, IM, or a call."

In the area of SMS and Internet mobile phone messaging Google lags behind as companies such as CallUp take the lead. CallUp Net is one of the world's leading messaging software providers which designs scalable, reliable, creative, sophisticated and low-cost SMS, VAS, and MMS messaging software systems specifically for telecommunications carriers. CallUp is respected for its messaging software and hardware which is based on open telco architecture that leverages existing Internet and telephony infrastructures.

CallUp, Ubifone and Swift-Find recently retained Leyden for their SEO activity. Leyden is presently retained by over a dozen leading Hi-Tech organizations in Israel for Internet search engine optimization.

Google recently made an excellent and historic catch. Vint Cerf, one of the original pioneers of the Web, has just joined the Google team. Cerf is the guy who developed the TCP/IP communications protocol that directs all packets of information from servers to users. He is also Google's newest employee. Cerf joins the search giant as its "chief Internet evangelist" on October 3rd having defected from MCI Inc. where he served for 11 years as the Sr. Vice President of Technology Standards. Cerf is Google's highest profile employee, ever. He solidified his place in history back in the early 1970's with the development of the Internet's primary protocol.

He will continue to work with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory on a project aimed at an Internet connection for space flights, and will remain as chairperson of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Calling his new position his "dream job", some of Cerf's comments might shine a light on what is happening in the deepest recesses of the Googleplex.

Recently SEO search engine optimization was put to good use for many humanitarian US, Europe, Asia and Israel Web sites which needed urgent top position placements on Google as a result of Hurricane Katrina. SEO is now illustrating it's power through highly effective Internet marketing - marketing which is now saving lives.

The Israel News Agency recently noticed a Website that we wanted to point out to the Internet SEO and SEM community. SEMcares.com exists to rally the Search Engine Marketing community to help those in need due to Hurricane Katrina by volunteering SEO and SEM skills to generate awareness and financial aid by delivering visitors to reputable and deserving relief organizations. If any of you can help, this site might be a good place to start.

(Source : www.israelnewsagency.com)

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